•
Rating:
Back in the distant 1990, Slayer released what would be their last (at least for now… Let's hope the return of the octopus Dave Lombardo makes the difference) masterpiece, the excellent in every way "Seasons In The Abyss", which confirmed Tom Araya's trend of participating in writing the lyrics, which had already begun with the great "South Of Heaven" two years earlier.
After a long and sad series of events that led to Dave's departure from the band, justified with a trivial "helping the wife after her delivery" but which suggested that the musical and familial bond between the four assassins was no longer what it used to be, the band, which hadn't released an album for four years ruining the previous average of a masterpiece every two years, decided not to sit idle and recruited the exceptional ex-Forbidden Paul Bostaph, who found himself playing on his first Slayer album, "Divine Intervention".
Strongly acclaimed at the time of its release by critics and fans, the album, initially seen as yet another masterpiece from the Los Angeles combo, however, underwent a significant negative revaluation over time.
Although, in fact, the content of the album was really excellent, it lacked the anger and violence that had characterized and led to the consecration of the band's previous works, which given the difficult circumstances (with the possible accusation of "You sold out" and slightly debilitated by the events of the time) was certainly not blameworthy, and indeed brought within this good CD some truly excellent and, I dare say, almost genius solutions.
But what drives me to say all this? Let's delve into the album, which features an excellent "Killing Fields" opening the dance (or satanic rituals? Who knows) but leaves a bitter taste in the mouth for fans who found themselves disoriented by the frequent use of mid-tempos, for goodness' sake, excellent and at times martial, but who left them eagerly awaiting a nice release of liberating "tupatupatupa": anyway, the opening song is excellent and confirms itself among the best of the album, which now shared with the old Slayer of the Eighties only the horrendous lyrics and little else.
It continues with a “Sex.Murder.Art.”, a song that I personally cannot tolerate for the total absence of characteristic Slayer-like solos and for the lyrics centered on rape and murder, which confirm it among the worst I have ever read (perhaps it was better if Araya continued to study medicine?).
"Fictional Reality" slightly below par, followed by a wild "Dittohead", which finally brings the Slayer trademark, with an initial "tupatupautpa" that, however, only serves to introduce a mid-tempo very similar to what was already heard on "South Of Heaven".
Fifth track the good "Divine Intervention", followed by a song that I really still can't digest despite numerous listens: it is "Circle Of Beliefs", perhaps the worst song of the entire album.
At this point, for me, the disappointment is quite substantial, but then comes something unexpected and absolutely brilliant: it is the mere twenty-five seconds of the opening to “SS-3”, the seventh track not even too striking in the follow-up, criticized by Max from Sepultura for its Nazi content. Now, listen to me well: just the intro of the song is worth the fifteen euros price of the album, it's one of the most irregular and beautiful riffs I've heard in Thrash, a great gem of the album that made me absolutely reevaluate it.
A subdued track, "Serenity In Murder" (the titles always leave one puzzled...) serves as a bridge to one of the strangest and most controversial songs I've ever heard in the Slayer household: "213" has an intro with melodic and semi-acoustic guitars, always recurring after so-called "rocking" parts: the song bodes well for a change in Slayer, which two years later would release the awful "Undisputed Attitude" and the merely decent "Diabolus In Musica" up to the forgettable "God Hates Us All".
Finished the heavy "213", we find the closing "Mind Control", an excellent song that could easily be contained in the very violent "Reign In Blood" from eight years earlier for the violence and mosh it unleashes.
Ups and downs, excellent solutions alternated with some decidedly banal ones, mid-tempos in place of the classic Thrash form: this album initially greatly confused my ideas, leaving me undecided for some time whether it was a masterpiece or a total flop: today, after digesting it, I can assure that the album, although it officially marks the decline of Slayer, is neither a flop nor a masterpiece, but simply a good album, and only the 25 seconds introductory to the riff of "SS-3" are worth the price of admission.
Recommended only for die-hard fans of the group: if you want to start listening to the assassins, you should listen to the immense masterpieces of the '80s when money was sought to be made and not to earn even more.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
03 Fictional Reality (03:37)
Crisis feeds the lunacy
All fear the new machine
Consumed democracy returns a socialist regime
It's laid to rest without a contest
All hail the new incompetence
Masking you see what to believe
A drone in the world of anarchy
Treachery, misery, violence, insanity
Scavengers closing in
Covering the truth again
Castrate society
Fictional reality
Insecurity afraid of things you cannot see
Words become the image of the enemy
You can't dissect what was correct
Vengeance based on how things were said
Can't see your side conflicts with mine
Frustrations lead to complete demise
Treachery, misery, violence, insanity
Scavengers closing in
Covering the truth again
Every trial conspiracy
Compassion is the enemy
Paralyze, criticize
Breaking through the wall of lies
Suicidal hierarchy racing in reverse
Everything that's done today will be tomorrow's curse
Screams in my head precede your death
Can't hold the rage when the truth is shed
Blind lead the bind line after line
In a world too shallow to defy
Treachery, misery, violence, insanity
Scavengers closing in
Covering the truth again
Castrate society
Fictional reality
04 Dittohead (02:30)
This fucking country's lost its grip
Subconscious hold begins to slip
The scales of justice tend to tip
The legal system has no spine
It's corroding from inside
Slap your hand you'll do no time
Reality on vacation
All across a blinded nation
Mentality under sedation
Anyone can be set free
On a technicality
Explain the law again to me
Here in 1994
Things are different than before
Violence is what we adore
Invitation to the game
Guns and blades and media fame
Every day more of the same
Murder, mayhem, anarchy
Now are all done legally
Mastermind your killing spree
Unafraid of punishment
With a passive government
There's nothing for you to regret
Nothing to regret
Unimposing policy
No enforcing ministry
Gaping with judicial flaws
Watching a fading nation crawl
Clashing with the public's frame
I'm the one that's place in fame
Legislature sets the stage
Social slaves caught in my rage
Administrative anarchy there's nothing
You can do to me
The world around you drifting to a
Continental tomb you see
Violence is my passion
I will never be contained
Living with aggression and its
Everlasting reign
05 Divine Intervention (05:33)
Awaken
In a web like hell
How did "I reach this place
Why are they haunting me
I cannot look at God's face
Paralyzing
Brilliant light
Trying to run
Want to scream but cannot speak
I cannot look at God's face
Blind my eyes I can't see
What is being done to me
In my mind only pain
All the memories are drained
Victimized
Specimen
Deathless torture
Void with no mercy
Black shroud binds those who see
Violated
Naked before you I stand
Shattered shrine of flesh and bone
God's piercing through my soul
Segments of my life
Morbid pieces of reality
Twisted personality
Many faces yet faceless
Familiar things give way to strange
No mercy no reason but pain
Fatal
Subconscious control
Threshold of pain unfolds
Transfixed martyr saving race
Who am I to judge thy grace
Awaken
In a web like hell
How did I reach this place
Why are they haunting me
I cannot look at God's face
06 Circle of Beliefs (04:29)
Can't explain the other side
Answers lost before their eyes
Violence surges from inside
A state of mind that never dies
Born into a chosen way
Life that doesn't fit today
To die a painful death it seems
Is better than your misery
Contemplating rearranging
Changing all your ways of thinking
Everyday your life seems like
It's pushed into a hole
Acting out another's needs
To rule a soul eternally
Adjusting to another set
Of values takes its toll
Growing in a lunacy
That plays on your stupidity
Circle of beliefs
Secrets never keep
Living in a lie
Right before your eyes
Born without a brain
Helpless in your name
All you do is pray
Living is your pain
Mentality so small you can't
Accept another side
Your point of view a memory
Because it doesn't mean a thing
The resurrections waiting for
A world without a sin
The temples all will crumble
While awaiting for it to begin
Circle of beliefs
Secrets never keep
Living in a lie
Right before your eyes
Losing is your way
Mental destiny
I can see your strain
You don't want to be saved
Can't you see no validity
Must control silencing of souls
Show decay spreading through your brain
Devastate the deviant will dominate
Can't you see there's no validity
Your way is not the only way
Slow decay is spreading through your brain
Don't you see the power of the enemy
Tyranny total supremacy
Control the silencing of souls
Slavery within the entity
Devastate, dominate
Can't explain the reason why
Someone would rather live than die
If dying is the only way
Top end a life of mental sins
All your life he's been the cause
A man impaled onto a cross
Pure religious holocaust
If religion dies it's not my boss
Perception always biased
Feeding off a fallacy
Your systematic way of life
Decided for you every night
Intentional conflicting words
Avoid solidity
Blinded by the holy light
That constantly consumes your mind
Circle of beliefs
Secrets never keep
Living in a lie
Right before your eyes
Burning in my wake
Souls are free to take
Your following a fake
Everyone awake
07 SS-3 (04:06)
Ancient crown placed on your head
The hangman of Prague
Seven keys to the chamber
Surrendered to the God
Hunting, fighting
Killing whore
Wade through blood
And spill some more
(Repeat)
Golden door submits secrets
As this nation falls
Atmosphere of deadly terror
Subservient to all
Hunting, fighting
Killing whore
Wade through blood
And spill some more
(Repeat)
Burning sense of mission
Assassination
Symbol of oppression
Crusade led from exile
Obliteration
Sabotaged campaign
Check resistance from afar
Planning the death of one
When the plot is executed
There will be nowhere to run
Ramifications will be high
A price paid in torment
The end justifies the means
To hell you will be sent
(Lead: Hanneman)
The wolf leader now is the stalked
Expansion state of horror
Guns echo over the grave
A thousand fates are sealed
Murderous power brought to an end
Only to rise again
Cold and ruthless and iron will
Protectorate of the dead
(Lead: King)
A thorough sweep
Prelude to death
Secrets kept
But no one left
Firing squad
Begins their work
Harsh reprisal
For what you took
Retribution selective terror
The stench of death is everywhere
A severed head
A floating mass
Will give me answers to what I ask
("Divine Intervention")
08 Serenity in Murder (02:36)
Let me take you down without a sound
Dead before you hit the ground
Blood washes my hand can't understand
Sterilizing my pain
Washed away with crimson tide
By my hand I keep testing time
Quench the fire that drives my soul
Soothing me as death takes hold
Peaceful and serene slowly bleeding
Eyes once bright are now fading
Pallid ashen face against my skin
Staring blindly at some distant place
Washed away by crimson tide
By my hand I keep testing time
Straight flesh lace adorns your neck
Spilling your blood all over my flesh
Quench the fire that drives my soul
Soothing me as death takes hold
Divine godsend enveloping me
Spiritual ecstasy sets me free
09 213 (04:51)
Driving compulsion morbid thoughts come to mind
Sexual release buried deep inside
Complete control of a prized possession
To touch and fondle with no objection
Lonely souls an emptiness fulfilled
Physical pleasures an addictive thrill
An object of perverted reality
An obsession beyond your wildest dreams
The Death loves final embrace
Your cool tenderness
Memories keep love alive
Memories will never die
The excitement of dissection is sweet
My skin crawls with orgasmic speed
A lifeless object for my subjection
An obsession beyond your imagination
Primitive instinct a passion for flesh
Primal feeding on the multitudes of death
Sadistic acts a love so true
Absorbingly masticating a part of you
Death loves final embrace
Your cool tenderness
Memories keep love alive
Memories will never die
I need a friend
Please be my companion
I don't want to be
Alone with my sanity
Erotic sensations tingle my spine
A dead body lying next to mine
Smooth blue black lips
I start salivating as we kiss
Mine forever this sweet death
I cannot forget all your breaths
Panting excitedly with my hands around
Your neck
Shades are drawn
No one out can see
What I've done
What's become of me
Her I stand
Above all that's been true
How I love
How I love to kill you
Loading comments slowly
